This Episode’s Music: “The Song of Scientism” (Super Star)

4,128 characters2008.02.17

What is “scientism”? Anti-scientism can be said to be one of my basic positions, running through all my articles. But Unic still says: too vague.

Come to think of it, that makes sense. I basically treat anti-scientism as a default orientation, and in concrete discussions I have never clearly and explicitly targeted the concept of “scientism.”

Because philosophy of science is my main line of work, and views on this point especially need to be handled with caution, I do not want to define this thing called “scientism” explicitly for the time being. And I also do not want to get into “two armies confronting each other”; in such a situation, two opposing camps are often deeply identical underneath, and although they seem utterly incompatible, in fact they often amount to birds of a feather. Moreover, an atmosphere of opposition easily makes people hot-headed, infecting them with keyword fever and leaving them unable to distinguish the original meaning of those concepts.

But roughly speaking, what exactly does “scientism” look like? Is there a more intuitive way to introduce it? After thinking it over, I recalled the MTV that Teacher Liu (Huajie) played for the students in the introductory philosophy of science class back then — “The Song of Scientism”

This song is truly wondrous beyond measure. On the surface, of course, it is just an ordinary love song, and the lyrics are rather hackneyed too. But if you replace the “you” in these lyrics with “science,” it very aptly portrays the attitude of “scientism,” and every word and every line contains deep meaning, well worth savoring.

The music has not been updated for a long time. At first it was because I forgot; later, because of the conspiracy to seal off the blog at any moment, I did not bother to update it. Today I’ll put up this “Song of Scientism” as well, which can also count as popularizing some academic terminology.

Super Star

Smile, and I break into song; frown, and my heart aches
I have no time to think of myself; I only feel what you feel
Wherever you want to go, take my soul with you too
It has been bewitched by you; what use is it to keep it
You are electricity, you are light, you are the one and only myth
I only love you You are my super star
You rule, I worship; there is no better way
I can only love you You are my super star
Hand, not a hand, but a gentle universe
My little planet is revolving in your hand
Please see me, let me have dreams to dream
I’ve gone mad for you; you must reward me
You are electricity, you are light, you are the one and only myth
I only love you You are my super star
You rule, I worship; there is no better way
I can only love you You are my super star
You are meaning, you are heaven, you are earth, you are God’s will
Apart from loving you, there is no truth
Fire, you are fire, the end of my moth-self
I never thought of escaping; why should I escape
Thank you for giving me a happy sleepwalk
If I forget myself, please help remember me
You are electricity, you are light, you are the one and only myth
I only love you You are my super star
You rule, I worship; there is no better way
I can only love you You are my super star
You are electricity, you are light, you are the one and only myth
I only love you You are my super star
You rule, I worship; there is no better way
I can only love you You are my super star

Latest Comments

physis
2008-08-31 22:09:11 Anonymous 59.55.254.150

Very interesting, it really fits.
Earlier I saw one of your posts saying that scholars of philosophy of technology, compared with those of Marxist philosophy, are better able to understand one another and communicate with one another—perhaps because they are all “foxes” with diverse interests? The image of these people in science and culture does indeed look quite different from that of philosophical scholars in the past or in other disciplines.
Guchu
2008-09-01 03:02:47

Hehe, this song
feels magical every time I look at it. When am I going to write a line-by-line “exegetical reading”~~
Which earlier post of mine were you referring to? Actually, scholars of philosophy of technology are also extremely complex; they are not all that good at communicating with one another. The ones who can understand one another better are mainly that group of cultural figures dubbed “anti-science,” I think…
physis
2008-09-01 13:41:38 Anonymous 220.176.147.44

A long time ago, one post about attending a Marxist philosophy lecture, where four Marxist philosophy teachers each did their own thing, and the result was poor
I meant that same group of people; you also wrote about them in that post of yours. I wonder whether the in-group term is “science and culture people”…